Akron Marathon 2022 Race Report

Mile 24: I began my Erie Marathon Race Report at mile 24, so why not do it again? Lots of things seem to happen at that point.

It's about this point where we make the turn onto West Market Street in order to move on to the finish. I suddenly notice that something about my shoe is scraping the ground, no matter how much I lift my feet. Those $250 Nikes must be falling apart. I don't think it's a problem, but I'll have to lift my feet higher still. Not my usual style, but I will have to deal with it.

What does seem to be a problem is that I don't think I'm going to make it. According to my watch, I hit mile 24 at 3:38:20. That should be plenty fine for my goal to get under four hours today. But maybe not. There's always the rest of the story.

Julie Boggs, Maureen Oblander, me, Michelle Wolff, Theresa Wright (photo: Julie)

The weather has been nearly perfect: 50s and 60s with a lot of clouds and no wind. I'd been a little concerned that that 13-day-ago Erie Marathon would slow me down, but I don't know whether that can be a legitimate excuse. 

What definitely can be a legitimate excuse are these here Akron mountains. Around halfway, the course turned onto the Towpath, and I remarked to Theresa Wright that it seemed like the old course. Theresa, who ought to know, indicated that it was. Oh oh. Although the first half was hilly, we'd come through in a stellar 1:57, but I now knew that the best was yet to come.

Just like in old times, we emerge from the Towpath somewhere after mile 16, and then make our way up through Sand Run Metropark. Up is the key word here. There definitely be mountains here. Big mountains. They ease up a little, and then they start again. And again and again. They don't quit until we run through Stan Hywet at about mile 23.

Said hills had slowed me down a whole heck of a lot. But now I know that the final two-plus miles are mostly downhill. Yay. 

My Nikes

The thing is, I don't know whether I can pick up the pace again. And I know that I have to pick it up a whole lot, because, much to my dismay, my mile 24 is a good 0.2 miles from the Akron Marathon mile 24. I always try to run the tangents, but things like this happen, and the extra distance can mean a couple of minutes added to my overall time. A couple of minutes that I do not have.

All I can do is try. Maybe picking up my feet due to the dragging shoes is a good thing. I run a 9:01 mile, then an 8:29 mile, and then, turning onto South Main Street for the final 0.41 mile, I manage to keep the pace up enough to just barely run sub-four hours.

What a relief.

Nice to see all my friends though!

Julie, me, and Theresa (photo: Theresa)